Answer: Determining which colors go well with others can become a science if you let it. We've all seen the familiar "color wheel" that shows complementary and contrasting colors. Reviewing the fundamentals behind complementary and contrasting colors can help you choose which colors to select. But other factors also affect our sense of color. This includes: color brightness, color area (how big/small), color saturation, proximity of colors to one another, light and how we feel about colors.

Answer: If they're healthy and well-watered, you don't have to do anything if the rose is hardy in your Zone. If you're growing tender roses, you may have to give them complete protection to get them through the winter. All roses will benefit from a shovel-full or two of well-rotted manure or compost placed over the crown of the plant. Apply this material after the first hard frost, so it doesn't prompt the plant to put on new growth.

Answer: First, we don't give our roses any winter protection. By spring, some plants will have various degrees of winter die back or no die back of their canes that determine our measurement of winter hardiness. We have three categories of winter hardiness: hardy to the tip, hardy to the snowline and hardy to the crown. If a rose is hardy to the snowline, the canes above the average snowdepth -- between 10 and 20 inches -- are dead, but everything beneath the snowline is alive.

Roses are budded in order to assure the healthiest, most vigorous root system on every variety. There are however, a few commercial varieties being grown on their own roots. That being said, almost any variety can be grown from cuttings. Keep in mind you may not have the same long term success as with plants purchased from commercial producers.

Roses on the coast, when cared for properly, will grow taller and have larger flowers than in the hotter inland areas where the hot summer sun causes the bushes to quit growing. Though we don't have the heat problem, there are some roses that need more heat than our climate can provide in order to bloom properly. That is why it is especially important here to get varieties which do well in cool, damp climates.

Answer: Almost all of the Rugosa roses are very fragrant -- and they're easy to grow. In addition to the Rugosa's the following roses are also fragrant: Cuthbert Grant and Rosa mundi. For more information about using the roses we offer, visit our online catalog. Answer: We have our favorites, of course, which biases this answer, but here's our suggested list for Zone 4: This list can be expanded, depending on your preference and favorites.

Answer: We get this question alot! I guess it's important to those of you giving roses as gifts -- you don't want it to send the wrong message! As far as we can determine, this is what the following rose colors signify: For more information on rose color, especially the names used to describe the color, visit the American Rose Society Web site.

Yes, but they will perform best in slightly acid (6.0 to 6.8), rich in organic matter, loam soil, with excellent drainage. If your soil is sandy or clay it can be improved with the addition of organic matter. Soil pH can be raised with the addition of lime beginning with an application 6 lbs. per 100 sq. ft. or lowered beginning with 2 lbs. of sulfur per 100 sq. ft. If your soil is extremely poor, consider building 18" raised beds or removing and replacing existing soil to a depth 18 inches.

All roses do the best when planted in full sunshine. This is especially true here on the coast. All yards have micro-climates in them, areas which are warmer or colder than the norm. It is best to find these warmer spots, preferably out of the wind. That said, there are bound to be times when an area of partial shade could be improved by the inclusion of a rose bush. In this case, there are certain musk roses which do quite well under these conditions.

Clematis are the Queens of the Climbers, prized for their incredible flowers. They will train onto trellises, fences, or arch over doorways. They only need to have their roots shaded and their flowers in the sun. Stunning when used alone or when several colors are mixed. Types are noted in the online catalog. Type 2 - In this group all first flowering comes from last season's ripening stems. In early Spring watch for swelling leaf buds beginning to show.

Answer: There are about as many special recipes for rose fertilizer and techniques for feeding roses as there are rose growers. All you need to know is that for a rose to produce a good show of blossoms, it needs to be fed. That food may come in the form of compost or well-aged manure, or come in a bag or bottle of ready-to-use fertilizer. We prefer a mix of both. We apply a shovel-full of compost per rose in early spring and late fall.

There is alot of homegrown and official advice on what you can do to keep deer from eating your plants. There's also lots of things you can buy that claim to repel deer. But, deer will anything if they're hungry enough. You can spend alot of money on repellants. People have mixed results with repellants, which seem to be affected by deer populations and food supply (deer will eat anything if they're hungry enough), to operator error -- oops, forgot to reapply after it rained.

Answer: This is a tough question -- most roses are real sun lovers and need at least 5 hours of sun each day to perform well. Roses that get less sun than they need have fewer blossoms and leggy growth as they try to reach for the sun. And sometimes shady spots also are more moist, which can lead to leaf spot and mildew problems. Generally, the thing to do is find a rose that blooms prolifically in full sun and has good disease resistance.

The first year they grow somewhat differently. They produce vigorous canes of a smaller diameter than grafted roses. After their first pruning there will be little difference from a grafted rose.

I have a dream. A dream where I become rich from selling novelty fish that sing painfully ironic songs to rednecks, yahoos, retards, and people with no taste.

We have tailor made orders section in our website for this purpose only. Just click on 'Tailor Made Orders' link in the top bar. You have to be a member of floralindia.com to place tailor made order. Membership is free. Just login and place your specific requirements in this section. You'll shortly recieve an email from us with your order ready. After that you can just login to customer section and place that order.

Check out Wordless' petpage. It lists all the colors and tells you whether it comes from a paint brush, the Fountain Faerie, the lab ray, or some other way.

Answer: We have 5 Standard Glossy Laminate Colors: Black, Blue Birdseye, Red Birdseye, Green Birdseye, and Brown Birdseye. You may select any one of these colors for your Magnum (1 color only). Your color choices are shown in the table below.